1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tool used to insert an engagement member which may be applied to a connector designed so that the engagement member is pushed into its housing to engage a terminal with the housing.
The present invention also relates to a connector examining device for checking the condition of the terminal of the connector or the like. The connector herein is used for interconnecting wire harnesses or connection between various electrical equipments in an automobile or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
For wiring of electrical equipment in an automobile, a connector is used to interconnect wire harnesses or connect a wire harness with an electrical equipment. The connector generally has a housing made of synthetic resin and male or female terminals accommodated in terminal containers formed in the housing. The terminals are engaged with the housing in the so-called housing lance system. When housings of the male and female connectors are fitted, the male and female terminals interconnect with each other, and are regulated and combined to attain an electrical connection.
The housing lance system is a technology according to which an elastic engagement arm integral with the housing protrudes toward an inner space of each terminal container and is engaged with an aperture or abutment of an electric contact of each terminal so as to prevent the terminal from slipping off. In the course of inserting the terminal into the housing, the engagement arm comes in contact with the terminal and is elastically transformed. When the terminal is perfectly inserted, the engagement arm restores its original shape and is engaged with the aperture or abutment of the terminal. Thus, inserting the terminal into the housing completely, the terminal is automatically engaged with the housing.
However, the engagement arm cannot be formed so large, and repetitive attachment/detachment of the male and female connectors to or from each other may cause the engagement arm to be damaged, so that eventually the terminal may drop out of the housing.
In recent years, a connector employing a double engagement arrangement has been used. In such a connector, an engagement member to engage with a terminal is fitted in a housing from its side after the terminal is inserted in the housing so as to attain an extra engagement of the terminal in addition to the engagement in the housing lance system. Such a connector is disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 3391/1992.
The connector disclosed in the official gazette has its housing provided with a through-hole at a side, and an engagement member is inserted in the through-hole. The engagement member, before a terminal is inserted in the housing, is retracted under a temporary engagement in position so that the terminal can be inserted. After the terminal is inserted, the engagement member is pushed into the housing to attain the double engagement.
In the above arrangement, the engagement member is temporarily engaged with the housing in advance, and therefore, the housing and the engagement member can be regarded as substantially a single component. Hence, inventory management and the like can be advantageously simplified.
The connector having the double engagement arrangement as mentioned above requires an operation of inserting the terminal into housing and an operation of pushing the engagement member into the housing. Since the engagement member is relatively small, manual insertion of the engagement member into the housing is more difficult work than that judged by appearances.
Especially, at the production line of wire harnesses, one operator may do both the operations of inserting the terminal and pushing the engagement member to more than one thousand connectors a day. It is an excessive burden upon the operator manually doing those operations on numerous connectors, and this leads to degradation of productivity.
Hence, lightening the burden of the operation of inserting the engagement member has been desired.